Massacre Videotape

Published: Wednesday, October 20, 1999

THE AIRING OF portions of videotape from Columbine High School surveillance cameras on the "CBS Evening News" and CBS stations has upset some of the victims' families, school officials and the Jefferson County sheriff's department.

The tape was played on a large screen at a law enforcement seminar conducted by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. A news crew from the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque covered the seminar and taped it off the screen.

To the broadcasters' credit, the tape that was broadcast does not display any bloodshed or bodies.

It is hard to see the justification for running the tape, but it is equally difficult to see why it is so controversial.

Compared to the horror that happened that day and the intense and repetitive reporting that has been done about various aspects of the murders since, the airing of the grainy footage hardly seems like anything more than a postscript. The video is mild by comparison to the way that people have already visualized the scene in their own minds.

Public interest in the terrible events at Columbine High last April 20 has remained high, so it should have been assumed that the news crew would have been interested in the footage. The organizers of the seminar were aware that the media were present and should not have made the tape available for being copied if it was to be kept confidential.